Safein

Safein is a decentralized blockchain-based platform that provides safe and easy KYC solution for businesses and users.

How it works:

The research shows that 88% of all online customers choose Facebook identity or Google accounts to sign in into a website. This marks an opportunity, since neither of them provide a verified account ready to make payments with, but this statistics shows users’ interest in a fast way of authorisation.

What Safein offers is a simple solution that allows users to get access to websites in one click and protect their personal data. Users create Safein profiles with personal data to serve as a universal verified KYC for any business they want to interact with. As they log in in a site, they can see what kind of data does the merchant ask for and accept or decline authorisation.

Safein makes onboarding new users really easy for companies, as all the necessary information is available to the business after the users logs in.

The company also acts as a payment service, allowing its users to pay for the goods and services via SFN, no matter what currency does the site they are buying from require. The transactions are automatically converted in the currency the merchant accepts with only 0,5% Safein fee.

Safein’s vision includes becoming a fully licenced EU electronic money institution to be able to receive and process payments legally as well as to connect to the SEPA network and give IBAN codes to its users and tie user’s accounts to payment cards. This is a step towards becoming a go-to payment option.

Innovation:

Safein is trying to grow a generation of users who value and protect their personal data. It develops a one-click KYC solution that protects user data and strives to become a universal payment option.

Probably, these are the reasons in is mentioned by Inc.com as one of the cryptocurrencies you should keep your eye on.

Innovation score: High

Token value:

SFN is a utility token that can be used as one of the cryptocurrencies to pay for the services on sites users log in with Safein. Merchants are incentivised to buy them as a bigger stake means less transaction fees. Users will be incentivised to use them, as they receive cashback bonuses in SFN. This means that with the growth of the userbase the demand for the tokens will go up, driving its price forward.

Token value score: Medium

White paper:

The white paper Safein presents is rich in detail. It really take its time to explain every aspect of the project. It talks about problems in the industry and the solutions the company offers, as well as presents possible applications of the platform. It also describes the token model and benefits for ICO participants.

The business plan presented in the white paper features the company’s growth strategy, describes its target audience and gives detailed financial projections.

White paper score: High

Roadmap:

In the end of 2017 Safein launched an MVP with basic functionality. Now it has more than 20,000 registered users and five partnerships. They have already introduced fully automated ID verification in the first quarter of 2018.

The company will release API/SDK and start integration with first clients in the third quarter of 2018. By the end of the year the storage is going to become fully decentralized, as the company fully integrates with blockchain. In 2019 Safein plans to introduce WordPress and other plugins and enhance verification possibilities.

Roadmap score: High

Business model:

The company’s success depends on rapid growth. This is why the team has decided to incentivize users to register by creating a Registration Pool, from which first users to register will be rewarded by SFN tokens. They also have a Login Pool for customers and sites that use Safein login.

Safein doesn’t reinvent the wheel and uses a simple viral strategy that PayPal, Airbnb and Dropbox used to acquire a big user base over a small span of time, a referral program.

The first industries to be marketed in by Safein is crypto exchanges and gaming, as the company estimates, they need this kind of solution the most. Since Steam has dropped BTC payments only because of the huge transaction fee, it may be open to taking up SFN.

The monetization model is based on a flat commission rate, so it the revenue will grow in proportion with the growth of volume of transactions. A conservative projection predicts an 18-20% cumulative monthly growth rate.

Business model score: High

Team:

The company’s CEO has more than 7 years of experience of developing fast growing esports and online games companies, which is a big plus since Safein starts from the gaming industry. The COO is an expert in finance, risk management and statistical modelling, who worked as an actuary for one of the largest UK insurers.

Senior team lead has over 10 years of experience in software programming, and has been an CTO in several companies. The head of business development holds a position of Chief Commercial Officer at CoinGate, one of the largest payment processors in the area of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The composition of company’s advisory board shows that Safein is really concerned with cybersecurity and the business side of the project, as they have more than one advisor in these fields to get a better view at the situation. They also have advisors on regulatory issues, finance and fintech.

One of cybersecurity advisors is calculated to be one of the top 3 cybersecurity influencers worldwide. The business development advisor is an CEO of a leading iGaming sportsbook services provider, the other one holds an executive position in the most active Baltic seed VC fund.

Team score: High

Competitors:

The competition in KYC industry is huge, but Safein has an edge on centralized companies because of technologies it uses. A big concern is IBM completing a blockchain based KYC solution.

While there are some startups that offers elements of what Safein offers, like KYC.legal, VISO and Paymon, none have the full spectrum of benefits Safein users are promised.

Competitors score: High

Overall thoughts:

Safein operates on a simple and effective idea, while preserving a very ambitious vision of the company’s future. The company has an outstanding team and their business plan predicts rapid growth.